Teen Gives 4,000 Soccer Balls to Kids Around the World Who Can't Afford Them

One minute, 10-year-old Ethan King was standing alone, kicking his soccer ball around a dusty, deserted field during a trip to Mozambique, and the next, dozens of kids were playing soccer with him.

"It was crazy," says the Grand Haven, Mich., resident. "Everyone was screaming and laughing and having fun."

That's when it hit him, he says, "how much joy a single soccer ball could bring." After a couple of kids showed him their soccer balls, made of balled-up trash bags and twine, the competitive soccer player says, "I felt really bad knowing that I had seven soccer balls in my garage back home and these kids didn't even have one or have access to buy one."

Since that day in 2009, King resolved to change that. King, who had been visiting the country for two weeks with his dad, started by giving away his soccer ball, the first of 4,000 balls that have been hand-delivered to kids in 22 countries since King, now 14 and a high school freshman in Michigan, began Charity Ball in 2010.

"This came from the heart," says his father, Brian King, 44, an executive director at Vox United, who was repairing water wells in Mozambique, when Ethan discovered his passion for giving. His mom Lorie, 45, says, "We just fanned the flame."

It was Ethan, who called corporations asking for donations, and spoke to kids and parents about Charity Ball's mission, on the sidelines of soccer games. For a $25 donation, Charity Ball guarantees that a brand new soccer ball will be hand-delivered to kids who can't afford to buy one.

Individual donors, corporations and other groups can also sign up to deliver balls through the website charityball.org. "Anyone can apply to take soccer balls with them to a place they are traveling to," explains Ethan, who returned to Mozambique last summer to help organize a soccer tournament and deliver balls.

Kids like Marques Nhongonheia, 10, and Divino Filipe, 11, from Mozambique, are among the recipients. "Now I own a ball that I can share with my friends and have a team for kids our age," says Filipe.

Says Nhongonheia: "Now we are playing with the same type of ball. I am just like one of those players we watch on television. The ball I received from Charity Ball has inspired me to take soccer seriously. "

To date, the nonprofit, first created at the Kings' kitchen table, has inspired 75 corporations and 1,000 people to help hand deliver soccer balls to kids in developing countries.

"I've learned you don't have to be a celebrity or be a certain age to make a difference," says Ethan. "I just wanted to do more because I knew I could."

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Just two weeks after finding a forever home, the husky-mix puppy thanked his adoptive family by rescuing them right back.

The McLarty family, of the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe Woods, say they were awakened around midnight on March 5. Their new 3-month old dog, Hunter, was whining, and so puppy mom Jill McLarty simply thought he needed to go outside.

"She was surprised that Hunter simply sat outside and continued to whine," read a statement from the Michigan Humane Society, according to CBS Detroit.

When Hunter returned to the family bedroom, the dog refused to let up, even as McLarty and her husband tried to sleep. Finally, she got up after the dog was anxiously running in circles.

The pup then led McLarty into the kitchen, where she discovered a gas burner from the stove had been left on – not enough to light it, but enough to emit dangerous fumes, which the family estimated had been escaping for the nearly six hours that passed since they had prepared dinner the night before.

"When she turned the light on, she saw Hunter sitting next to the stove and noticed that one of the gas stove burners was on low, without a flame," the Humane Society said in a statement.

No surprise here: The dog's family was grateful for their furry hero.

"He is the first dog we ever adopted [from the Michigan Humane Society], and I would recommend it to anybody," proud puppy dad Tim McLarty said. "And as cliché as it sounds, the life you save may save yours."

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At the end of 2008, the unthinkable happened to C.J. Arabia. Her mother — the healthy one who lived on baked chicken and broccoli and who wouldn’t let her kids use a microwave — was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer and given three months to live.

To ease her through grueling chemotherapy, Arabia’s mother took up knitting. When she passed away at 59, Arabia’s brothers gave her their mother’s leftover yarn to keep, though she had never knitted before. But she absolutely knew that was the yarn’s purpose. “I stared at it in the corner,” she said. “It’s weird how a bag of yarn can give you so many feelings.”

So after several months of waiting to start and when YouTube tutorials didn’t do the trick, she took a local knitting class in Los Angeles and has “kind of been knitting excessively ever since.”

There have been hats, scarves, masks for dogs, mittens — anything that strikes her fancy — and she doesn’t follow patterns when making her artwork. The 44-year-old has documented herself knitting everywhere from the Grand Sumo Tournament in Japan to castles in Europe. Her designs are whimsical (a "Clockwork Orange" ski mask), intricate (multicolored hooded capes) and practical (soft, knitted bookmarks). She has given herself carpal tunnel syndrome from all of the knitting, or maybe it was the purling.

But most of all, she has healed her grieving heart. “For me, knitting is like a meditation. It almost takes me out of my head when I can be sad or stressed or anxious … it helps so much.”

She read somewhere that knitting and meditation light up the same parts of the brain, and though she had always had trouble meditating, she finds that “knitting is a way to just kind of float. You’re floating with the waves, just bobbing up and down. That’s how the stitches are for me. That’s all you can think about.”

Arabia’s family and friends have been the beneficiaries of her habit — “If you know me, you have something knitted from me.”

She gives away almost everything she makes. “People tell me I should sell my stuff — and occasionally I do — but I give the vast majority away,” Arabia said. “For one, nobody wants to pay what a hand-knitted item, made with really good natural fibers, is actually worth.”

Yarn is purchased anywhere from $36 a ball to $60 a ball and up through her travels, though her favorite store is Knitty City on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, which she calls her “Vatican.”

“Going into a yarn store for me is like kids walking into a toy store,” Arabia said, adding, “I smell the yarns, sometimes I smell the sheep or llama or alpaca or hay. The more natural the fiber, it has little bits of dirt and hay. To me, they’re lucky and I leave them in.”

No scrap is wasted — she will use colorful odds and ends to create vibrant designs. And knitting has become so natural that Arabia doesn’t have to see what she’s doing. “I can feel in the dark if I have made a mistake,” she said. “I can go back and fix the mistake without looking.”

She does have a following in certain Hollywood circles. Her boyfriend is film and television actor Mather Zickel (of “Rachel Getting Married” and recently Showtime’s “Masters of Sex.”) A longtime friend is Janeane Garofalo. She has other famous friends, not that she’ll drop any names. “I live in L.A.,” she said, “it’s just my friends happen to be celebrities.”

While Arabia is a Web engineer by day, she has turned knitting into a way to give back and help others. She has knitted with residents at a local nursing home, many of whom speak languages other than English. “What they all spoke was knitting,” she said. “I could help them with their stitches and it didn’t matter what they spoke.”

In addition, she visits area cancer patients and knits for them. “I can’t cure cancer,” she said. “I can’t cure the pain that my mom was going through. But I can make someone who is suffering a hat and talk to them about colors for a day.”

She creates blankets and beds for shelter cats and dogs through SnugglesProject.org. And she’ll teach anyone who wants to learn how to knit — as long as they show up on time.

“People come up to me when I’m knitting in public and ask me about it. They tell me stories of their grandmas who taught them to knit but they haven’t done it since they were a kid but always think of getting back into it.

“I always encourage them to get back into it and tell them how I learned,” she said. “It’s always a good idea to get back into knitting, and it’s never too late.”

But really, Arabia said, her “knititation” has been therapeutic.

“It can be an escape from sadness, anxiety, fear, or just beating yourself up in your own head, or rehearsing and re-rehearsing old conversations and situations,” she said. “These are things my brain does sometimes, and I’m so grateful to my mom and to all the knitters who have come and gone before for passing this down through the generations. It’s such a beautiful craft.”

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Los Angeles (CNN) -- It's the stuff you might expect only to see on TV or in movies -- the upbeat kind with happy endings.

Thankfully, that is just what happened in Burbank, California -- the Southern California city that's home to Warner Brothers and Walt Disney studios -- as a toddler fell from three stories up into a stranger's arms and onto a box spring mattress.

"It feels like I watched a TV show, like it didn't happen to me," Konrad Lightner, who identified himself as the man who caught the child and fell with him, told CNN affiliate KABC.

Sunday was moving day for Lightner and wife Jennifer, a typically exhausting if not momentous endeavor.

Until, that is, they spied a youngster hanging out of a third-story window of an apartment building and called 911.

According to Burbank fire Capt. Peter Hendrickson, calls for help came shortly after 5:30 p.m. (8:30 p.m. ET), after witnesses saw the child crawling out of the window.

Enter the box spring.

It was placed under the window, and although Hendrickson did not name the Good Samaritans, the Lightners said it was their mattress and Konrad Lightner's arms that came to the rescue.

The toddler fell only to be caught, and together the toddler and the catcher fell onto the box spring.

Jennifer Lightner told KABC that the whole episode "didn't seem real until he was hanging from (a) chord, because there was no way he was going to get back." It was then, she added, that the couple threw down their box spring mattress.

"It (was) now up to Konrad to catch him," Jennifer Lightner added.

That's exactly what Konrad Lightner said he did, putting his arms around the falling child "and lower(ing) him real fast to the box spring."

Photos taken a short time later and posted on MyBurbank.com showed a man -- clad in a T-shirt, shorts and no shoes -- cradling what appeared to be his child on the box spring. Another shows the same man carrying the child, surrounded by toys like Minnie Mouse and SpongeBob SquarePants dolls and as Jennifer Lightner holds the box spring upright.

The youngster appeared to be dressed in footsie pajamas, with no signs of trauma or obvious injuries.

The child was transported to Children's Hospital Los Angeles, said Hendrickson of the Burbank fire department.

Another photo shows a firefighter helping the Lightners carry away their box spring, and one pictures Konrad Lightner being thanked by a firefighter.

Jennifer Lightner described the happening as "very surreal," all the more so considering the couple resumed the mundane task of moving not long after.

"I'm not a hero," her husband told KABC. "I just walked by and just tried to help. Just something happened and were there.

"We were lucky to be there."

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Couple who met in a homeless shelter pay it forward, help others transform lives

Homeless for three years, Ressurrection Graves vividly remembers the week she slept in her car, waiting for beds to become available at a Washington, D.C., homeless shelter. It was the week of Aug. 23, 2011, when a 5.8 earthquake shook the Virginia area and Hurricane Irene battered the East Coast with wind and rain.

“I prayed and was asking God how this could end,” she told TODAY.com. “It was like, 'Make it stop!'"

When beds finally became available at the shelter, Ressurrection checked in. And there she met Deven Graves, the “kind” man with whom she would leave homelessness behind and start an organization that is helping people caught in a cycle of poverty, including more than 75 homeless individuals so far this year.

“I had this guy staring at me,” Ressurrection recalled of her first encounter with Deven. “It felt like he was looking into my soul. It’s certainly not what you’re expecting in the environment I was in.”

In an interview with TODAY's Lester Holt on Saturday, Graves added to the story and said she "certainly did not go to a shelter to look for a man," but the pair had an instant connection that she called "magical."

Deven, a veteran, had a difficult time making the transition from military to civilian life. That and the death of a family member left him feeling “a little bit lost,” Ressurrection said. He was living at the shelter while working construction jobs and looking for something more permanent.

Deven wooed her over a game of chess, and asked if she would edit his resume. As an entrepreneurial-minded mother who owned her own massage business before she fell on hard times, Ressurrection was impressed. But she didn’t want to get serious until they were out of the shelter.

It didn’t take long. After a month, Ressurrection and Deven saved up enough money from their jobs to move out. Their first date was “romantic and affordable,” a picnic at a park near the water.

Five months later, Deven proposed. They decided to hold a wedding ceremony on a day of special significance: the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech.

So on Aug. 28, 2013, two years to the date after Ressurrection and Deven played their first game of chess, the couple exchanged vows on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial as they heard President Obama's voice echoing across the water during his speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

“I felt nothing but peace and joy,” Deven said. “It was a blessing.”

They celebrated the union by giving back to the homeless community. After the ceremony, the wedding party handed out sandwiches to homeless people who frequented two nearby parks. Everyone prayed together, cried together and hugged each other.

“Some of our guests had no idea what we really went through or what our experiences were,” Ressurrection said. “That outreach gave them a way to see inside our experience a little bit.”

The couple's giving didn’t end with sandwiches. They co-founded Glory Soldiers Global, a nonprofit dedicated to ending homelessness and poverty. One of their programs provides counseling and, when funds are available, financial resources to help the homeless find a place to live. Another organizes community “housewarming” parties that provide renters with essentials like cooking utensils and bathroom supplies through donations.

They want to give people the means to undergo “a total transformation." And in that spirit, Ressurrection is also a source of emotional support for community members as a mentor for victims of child sexual abuse.

“While I was homeless I realized that there was a correlation between child sexual abuse and adult homelessness,” Ressurrection said. “Both of those things have happened to me in my lifetime, and I didn’t realize how they were interconnected.”

Ressurrection speaks at colleges around the country, and the couple's efforts have been featured in several publications, most recently in FOX5’s pay it forward column. A memoir penned by Ressurrection about her experience will be re-released next month. (It was originally published in 2011.)

On top of all that, Ressurrection has been participating in a common parent ritual: college applications. Her daughter, now 18, has already been accepted to two universities.

Life is stable again — though it took some time for the couple to reach that point. They live in a house together, and Deven has a full-time job that provides for his family. Special financial programs for veterans also have proved helpful, and the couple encourage other veterans to explore such options.

“It was a blessing to have Ressurection come in my life,” Deven said, adding that he's relishing his new role helping others who haven’t overcome homelessness yet.

“People can feel rejected, or they feel a sense that no one cares or understands,” he said. “It’s a wonderful feeling for me to help them see that people really do care and other people have compassion. That’s one thing we need more of in this world, compassion.”

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WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) – A woman from Wilmington is doing all she can to help a teen in need by starting a college fund for a homeless teen from South Carolina.

Kendal Benjamin is a 17-year-old who says homelessness is his reality, but not his label. He lives in a shelter and became homeless after his mother lost her job.

Emily Wetzel saw Kendal's story on our website, and said she was inspired and wanted to help.

"There's so many people that need help and we feel bad and we walk by them, and we don't do anything about it," Wetzel said. "You never know what could happen and you would want someone to do the same for you."

Wetzel started a college fund for Kendal last week. She says she raised almost $500 in the first two hours and is looking to raise a total of $5000 for him.

High School Wrestler's Touching Gesture After Loss Moves Crowd to Tears

There is always joy in winning, but Minnesota high school wrestler Malik Stewart proved there is sometimes even more glory in graceful defeat.

The sophomore moved many inside St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center to tears last week after he lost a state high school wrestling championship to fellow sophomore Mitchell McKee, yet poignantly embraced his opponent's father, who is battling terminal cancer and given only months to live.

"I got a little teary because I lost the match, and I knew the hard times he was going through. The crowd went wild and I heard a couple people say after I did it – that was pretty classy – but I just did it straight from the heart," Stewart told NBC affiliate KARE in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

The young wrestler knows the pain of losing a father while young all too well: His own father died when he was just 7 of a heart attack.

Stewart's ultimate show of sportsmanship sweetly stunned many who watched it and knew the McKee family's struggle. His inspiring act was particularly appreciated by his opponent.

"It was a big match for him and to be able to hug my dad like that and not be mad and storm off like a lot of kids do," said McKee. "Really respectful."

Already, Stewart's mature display is being touted as a model of sportsmanship by other coaches who watched the heartwarming scene.

"The whole crowd gave a standing ovation, not just for the STMA wrestler and his father, but for Stewart, who understands what true sportsmanship is," T.J. Anderson, an assistant wrestling coach at Minnesota's Dassel-Cokato Middle School, wrote in a letter to Stewart's school district.

"Mr. Stewart is a model wrestler that we can all use in our examples of what a true athlete is." .....

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A rescued puppy is able to spread the love he’s received thanks to WCCO’s viewers. On Saturday night, we introduced you to a 3-month-old hound named Cupid.

The rescue group Ruff Start took him in, knowing he’d need surgery to fix his deformed front paws. Azure Davis, the rescue group’s founder, couldn’t turn him away and neither could anyone who saw his story.

“It’s just crazy to see how generous people are. We are so thankful,” she said. “As soon as the story aired, $5,000 to $6,000 came in with 48 hours.”

Ruff Start Rescue was hoping to raise $6,000 to cover Cupid’s surgery and therapy costs. University of Minnesota veterinarians will perform surgery to correct his deformed front paws early next week. He’ll have splints then undergo therapy.

As for the hundreds of adoption applications that poured in, Davis said it’ll be at least two months until the rescue reaches back out to homes that may be a good fit.

Nearly $8,000 has been donated to Cupid’s therapy fund. Ruff Start is using the extra money collected to help other rescues that need medical attention.

“It’s been great,” Davis said, of receiving the financial support. “It makes us feel like we can take on dogs like this. That we can help the unfortunate dogs. We want to save them all, but taking them on can put them in a tough financial spot.”

Among them, a 10-month-old Chihuahua named Little Waffles.

He’s suffered seizures since they took him in last December. Medicine hasn’t been successful and blood work suggests he suffers from an autoimmune disorder. Extra tests are needed, but are expensive.

Ruff Start Rescue finds homes for 160-180 dogs and 60-70 cats at any given time. Since it doesn’t have a shelter, all of the pets live at foster homes until a permanent family finds them.

Oke is a pitbull who’s been waiting for a home for the last two years. He’s an energetic and loveable dog, but needs allergy shots, which can be an extra cost that makes it hard to find a home.

Davis said Oke would be best with a family that has older kids and no dogs or female dogs. He’s big, strong and full of energy. Since they don’t have a foster home for him, he’s been living in a boarding house for the time being.

“We’re hoping to get his story out there and find him someone. That perfect family we know has got to be out there, somewhere, looking for him too,” Davis said.

Like the pets they save, big or small, Ruff Start Rescue knows donations at any amount are gifts filled with love.

“$10 here. $10 there. It adds up. Everything adds up,” Davis said with a smile. “That makes us be able to save these little dogs that there’s no way otherwise we could. So thank you.”

Ruff Start Rescue is still accepting donations to help Cupid’s medical fund.

A Minneapolis police officer wants to give back to the man who saved his life.

Carlos Baires Escobar had been on the waiting list for a kidney for two years. In January, 20-year-old Sebastian Rivera saw a Facebook posting detailing Baires Escobar’s story. Rivera then donated a kidney.

And every day now, Baires Escobar shows signs of healing.

“These guys miss me, so it feels good to be back,” he said.

On the job for six weeks after a kidney transplant, the daily routine brings new meaning.

“Slowly, my body has been adjusting to the new organ, and I’m feeling great,” Baires Escobar said.

He found health through a Facebook posting and a 20-year-old unlike any other.

“Without any reservations, he just decided to help somebody who he didn’t know,” Baires Escobar said.

Rivera says he doesn’t regret the decision at all.

Pain and a long recovery didn’t stop him from offering an organ. It was a gift that came with no expectations.

“Helping someone out, just because…it should be a normal thing, you know,” Rivera said.

But a good deed doesn’t go unnoticed, and Rivera needed help of his own.

Winter weather caused him to crash his car right before the organ donation surgery. He’s also been out of work for recovery for weeks, he and can’t afford the thousands needed to fix his car.

“So I decided I should do something about that,” Baires Escobar said.

The Facebook page where the police officer once asked for an organ, now includes a plea to help Rivera.

“I just want to give him something back for something I could never pay for,” Baires Escobar said. “It feels good to help people. It feels good to say, ‘You know what: I’m going to help you.’”

If you’d like to help donate to the fund set up for Rivera, you can donate to any US Bank branch under the Help a Hero fund.

Ask your vet about microchipping. ~ It could have saved Kuhio's life. And it cost Halo hers.Ask your vet about Polycystic kidney disease ~~ Rest in peace WillyLoved by Lisa

Last week I left my handbag hanging at my shopping cart ....! I only realized it when I got back home and wanted to take something out of it....
I rushed back to the shop (8 minutes drive), and of course the bag wasn't in the cart anymore..
I went into the shop and told what had happened. The shop owner came to me and said that a lady found my bag, and brought it straight to him!!
Wow, I was so very much relieved!!! I am so thankful to this lady, and I wish I knew who she is.... ; I wish I could thank her for doing what she did!

Last week I left my handbag hanging at my shopping cart ....! I only realized it when I got back home and wanted to take something out of it....
I rushed back to the shop (8 minutes drive), and of course the bag wasn't in the cart anymore..
I went into the shop and told what had happened. The shop owner came to me and said that a lady found my bag, and brought it straight to him!!
Wow, I was so very much relieved!!! I am so thankful to this lady, and I wish I knew who she is.... ; I wish I could thank her for doing what she did!

Lut ~ That's great. And you can thank this person for what they did by doing something nice for someone else.

Ask your vet about microchipping. ~ It could have saved Kuhio's life. And it cost Halo hers.Ask your vet about Polycystic kidney disease ~~ Rest in peace WillyLoved by Lisa

HOWELL (WWJ)-For kids growing up, there are always issues with bullying and other social problems.

One local 8-year-old is looking to make a difference with your help.

Cayden Taipalus has touched millions around the world after he launched an initiative to help pay for lunches of students from low-income families in Livingston County.

The idea came after Taipalus had a saddening moment during lunchtime one day at Challanger Elementary in Howell.

“I was in lunch one day, in the lunch line getting hot lunch,” Taipalus said. “A kid in front of me didn’t have enough money on their account, so it made me sad.”

Young Cayden wanted them to be like others who get to experience a hot lunch, so that was the day that the 8-year-old’s life changed forever.

He asked his mom if he could earn money to help the kids who couldn’t get a hot lunch, and she suggested that he earn some cash.

“I collected bottles and went to my family, friends and neighbors to get money,” Taipalus said.

After that, he returned to school with $64 in his pocket.

“Cayden came in, handed over the money and said, ‘can you pay off each lunch account,’” One school official said.

The family then helped him set up an account on fundraiser.com, and then the story went viral. So far Cayden has collected $14,000 dollars, and on Monday, Cayden went ahead and paid for 4,000 school lunches.

His mom Amber says Cayden’s always the one to step up in a time of need.

“He’ll go shovel for the neighbors,” Amber said. “He will do whatever he can in the classroom for others.”

Now people everywhere are acknowledging the young man’s good deeds, yet young Cayden is still in shock over the reaction he is getting for paying it forward to classmates.

“I’m just surprised,” Taipalus said. “Because it was small and it turned so big.”

Every student is offered an alternate lunch that includes a sandwich, juice and fruit when they can’t afford the hot lunch options.

Nearly 30 percent of students in Livingston County are enrolled for free- or reduced-priced lunch, a federal program offered to students from low-income families.

Ask your vet about microchipping. ~ It could have saved Kuhio's life. And it cost Halo hers.Ask your vet about Polycystic kidney disease ~~ Rest in peace WillyLoved by Lisa